Social Wallpapering

This is one of the best collections of desktop wallpapers that I have ever seen. This new web 2.0 type of site offers the user the ability to rate wallpapers and actually save them to your computer. I think that this is a great idea and it also gives graphic artists the ability to show off their work. Check it out.

www.socwall.com

HD DVD vs. Blu Ray is almost over, almost.

This is a graph that I found on several sites and RSS feeds representing the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray sales since Christmas. As you can see Blu Ray is killing HD DVD right now. I could not really care less truthfully and I think that most people follow me in this thought. I think that people are just waiting for one of these formats to be declared the winner and get on with life. There are a few things that will be affected by this decision though. The gaming consoles that back each of these formats could be changing formats as well. The PS3 already has the on board Blu Ray player but Microsoft backed the wrong horse in this race. The XBox 360 has an HD DVD player add on available to go with that nice new HDMI port now available in the newer units. Well recently Sam's Club has lowered the price of these external HD DVD players to $72. They have been selling out and popping up on various market places on the web at a lowered price. Also rumored was Microsoft's new love for the Blu Ray technology and that they could possibly have an external version available for the 360 soon. What this is going to do is lower the cost of older technology such as Dual Layer DVD's and then the Blu Ray drives and blank Blu Ray DVD's will be the new expensive thing. Well at least some good will come from this painful battle but I just want my plasma to have a 1080P feed for movies. After a few hits and more misses it looks like Sony put their money on the right technology.

Whoops. Has someone seen my tape?

This story is just another example of careless people that oversee our day to day lives. An iron mountain "secure" facility that backs up our personal data that has been collected by retailers such as Sears, J.C. Penney and even G.E. have "lost" a SCSI tape that contained hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions and also social security numbers for employees of different companies. The spokesperson said "The tape was never checked out, its just missing." I guess that they work under the honor system at this place. I find it very easy to believe that someone that wanted to steal data from one of these facilities would not sign it out and just take it. This is Social Engineering at it's best if I had to guess. They are going to look at the obvious people that have easy access to the equipment but I think that the blame is going to lie somewhere else. The data has been encrypted on the tape but it depends on the level of encryption that they decided to use. Judging by the level of security around the "protected" data at this facility, the person who took it should not have a hard time breaking the code. Maybe they should try 12345 for the key.

http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/219705350/article.do

COD 4 Fun!

I have just started playing COD4 on Xbox Live and thoroughly enjoy it. Above is a video of a guy that is a sniper, has a few kills and makes a lot of guys look bad. One of the kills might even be me. A friend from work sent me this link and I thought that I would share it with all of you. If anyone that reads my blog wants to saw hello online my gamertag on Live is SWILK3RS. Happy hunting!

Save Money By Switching!

It is hard to watch television, surf the net or listen to the radio without seeing or hearing about car insurance rates. "If you switch to BLAH BLAH insurance you could save up to $400 a year!" Well after thinking about this I realized that EVERY car insurance ad claims this to be true. Allstate, Geico, Progressive, Etc. Etc. What company is the one that has the highest rates that everyone else is saving by switching to a different company? I am sure that if you are needing SR22 (DUI) insurance and switch to a company that specializes in helping those who choose to get caught drinking and driving have insurance you could save some money. "If you fall into a certain niche of driving coverage and need insurance call me, you could save money!" This should be the slogan, it's more accurate. I guess the alternative would be "Hey, we could save you money but it's probably a waste of time. Oh yeah, you will need to give us a down payment as well." I wouldn't call them, maybe they should stick to the saving money stuff.

Big Brother Is Watching

I recently read the the FBI has started one of the world largest biometric databases for United States citizens. In the early reports of this story they listed the project at having at least one billion (or $1,000,000,000) dollars for this initiative. The effects are already starting to trickle down the system at the local level. As with any country wide policy and security change it has drawn some criticism.

To demonstrate how these things start I only need to point to one company, Disney. I am not saying that the Disney Corporation is part of some conspiracy but they were one of the first amusement park companies to incorporate a finger print scanning system into the regular park entry turn style. Now other parks and amusement type places have placed similar systems into use such as Busch Gardens. When my girlfriend and I decided to spend the day at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay I was asked to put my finger (voluntarily) into a scanner. I refused. They still let me in but I felt like there was something majorly wrong with this situation. What were these companies doing with all of this information that they were collecting? Every year over 119 million visitors cross through the gates of North American amusement parks. The official stance of companies like Disney Corp. in regards to the data that is being collected is that it is purged from the system after 48 hours and nothing comes from it. Knowing the habits of most medium to large size companies I have a hard time believing this as well. Companies like this have an extremely hard time deleting customer information and data that can be used for advertising purposes.

Today I read in John Dvorak's blog that Green Bay Wisconsin police are now taking finger prints when they pull people over. The persons fingerprint will be on the actual citation that is given. The reason that the local Wisconsin police give for the sudden change is for mistaken identity cases. They are protecting you from a citation that you may be charged with when your buddy (that looks exactly like you) is driving YOUR car and is caught speeding. So, with all of this in mind I go back to my original point of the trickle down effect. I am not a conspiracy theorist but this seems like a bit more than a coincidence. The point of doing this the way that they have chosen to do it is so that you are conditioned to be comfortable with the thought of walking into the mall and putting your finger into a scanner for your "protection." Don't be surprised to see your local government is adopting the same policies.

Christmas Reading For Kids!

Here is something that you just don't see enough of, pop up books with splatter! I found this picture on the BOING BOING blog and thought that I would share. If you are shopping for your nieces and nephews this Christmas season and don't know what to get them, grab a book and some safety glasses! Too bad that this is not real, I would send everyone in my family something that they would remember Uncle Sean by. Of course I would include a card that had a warning label "May cause one to poop themselves, change of clothes not included."